Happy Holidays from your AGA Chapter Board

We wish all of our members a happy and blessed holiday season. We will not have a regular meeting this month but encourage all our members to attend the presentation by David Osborne at UNO on December 7 at 1:00 p.m. in the UNO Alumni Thompson Center. The topic will be “performance budgeting and its implications for policy makers and taxpayers”. For further information contact Sara Woods at 402.554.3914.

See you in January at the Scott Conference Center for a joint lunch and presentation with the IIA on January 26, 2012.

Happy New Year!

Your Omaha AGA Board

Omaha AGA Publishes first ever Citizen Centric Report

Hot off the presses - Omaha AGA publishes their first ever CCR (Citizen Centric Report). In a push from National to encourage all chapters to implement the CCR and spread the benefits of this reporting tool to the membership and local and regional govermental entities - Omaha AGA answered the call.

Regionally, the Midwest Regional Chapters are also publishing their own CCR’s look for them on each of their web sites.ccromahametroareaaga20111

AGA Fall 1/2 Day PDC

Join us at Mammel Hall on UNO’s south campus for an afternoon of quality live presentations. Matthew Maiers Audig Sr Manager at KPMG LLP  will present on GASB and FASB (comparisons and contrasts); Carol Ebdong, Assoc. Professor School fo Public Administration at UNO will present on current issues with defined benefit plans, defined benefit versus defined contribution plans; Tom McClung VP of Business Development Integrity Staffing & Solutions will present on why implementing a business ethics program is important; and finally we will have a panel discussion on Intergovernmental Financial Dependency with invited guests: Pam Spaccarotella, City of Omaha Finance Director; Art Hill, City of Council bluffs Finance Director; Larry Burks, Onawa City Administrator (two other speakers yet to be confirmed). We welcome our break sponsor InSearch Recruiting and graciously thank the UNO School of Business. To pay in advance use the link through the event calendar.

Contact jlui@oppd.com to RSVP

For more information contact cdmcpa@earthlink.net

aga-11-17-11-pdc1

Omaha Chapter to Honor George Ireland and Steve Walker

AGA Omaha is proud to call both George Ireland and Steve Walker, members. Many people in local government remember George Ireland’s long tenure at both the City and the County. George could always be counted on to know the latest score of the Red Sox game and butterscotch candies on his desk. Steve Walker, a founding member of the chapter, was there to sign the petition to start our chapter 22 years ago. He has served the County as the fiscal administrator during great times and lean times. I had the pleasure of working with both, George and Steve, first on a business level and then through leadership at the AGA chapter level and then back again on a business level. Always the cool and level headed individuals that you see everyday and at the meetings.

On Friday May 20 at 4:00 p.m. please join us at Region 6 - 3801 Harney Street to honor our very own - George and Steve.

Submitted by Catherine Demes Maydew

Omaha Chapter to receives Another Platinum Award at National PDC

For the third year in a row the Omaha Chapter has received a Platinum Award for its outstanding chapter year. Sara Ransford and Sharon Medina should be congratulated for leading a fantastic chapter year 2010/2011. Platinum awards are given to chapters that have met the top level of points in all areas of the chapter recognition program. Sara and Sharon traveled to Atlanta to the National PDC to receive the recognition. Thanks to the board that helped develop this successful chapter year! Way to go team!

AGA’s Citizen - Centric Reporting Initiative

n 2008, AGA surveyed the public on the effectiveness of government fiscal reporting. Eighty-nine percent said that, as taxpayers, they are entitled to transparent financial management information, and 57 percent said that government has an obligation to provide it. They further indicated that government is failing to meet its financial management reporting needs, and that poor performance has created a problem of trust between residents and their governments. The survey showed that governments need new innovative means of communication to overcome those challenges.

AGA’s citizen-centric reports are designed to help remedy this. The program is an easily adoptable reporting option for all governments, including guidelines for content, a design template and completed reports.

The AGA Citizen-Centric Government Reporting Initiative is steadily expanding. The U.S. Departments of the Interior and Defense as well as the U.S. Coast Guard have produced reports at the federal level. The states of Oregon, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington as well as cities and counties such as Saco, ME, Tallahassee, FL, Portland, OR, and Blount County, TN, have produced Citizen-Centric Reports to the benefit of their citizens. Many others are in the works.

We encourage you to take the initiative to work with your government employer or with the city, town or state where you live and persuade them to produce a similar report. AGA is ready and waiting to help with free consulting advice, a template and other tools to help you accomplish this goal. Please visitwww.agacgfm.org/citizen/construct.aspx or call Susan Fritzlen at 800.AGA.7211 for more details.

Performance - Based Management

Public officials can speed up and enhance government reforms and transparency through performance-based management (PBM) right now with modest changes to existing information systems. PBM integrates existing financial, operations and other data into eye-opening and actionable facts for enlightened decisions. It is able to consistently track cost and performance over time and improve predictive ability. PBM is flexible, so that different entities can tailor it to their needs and still give top leaders consistent, cross-government views of performance and the cost of creating societal value. Read the report.

2009 CFO Survey: Recovery and the Transparency Imperative

In spring 2009, nearly 500 government financial executives and managers from the United States and Canada participated in the 15th annual chief financial officer (CFO) survey sponsored by the Association of Government Accountants (AGA) and AGA Professional Corporate Partner Grant Thornton. Key topics for 2009 include economic recovery, transparency, what new CFOs need to know and annual financial statements. Read the report.

Administration Seeks Your Recovery.gov Tips

Omaha AGA Now Accepts Credit Card Payments!

Members and guest we are now set up to accept credit card and PayPal account payments online. Click the event from the event calendar that you wish to register for, click the “buy now” button; a link takes you out to a secure PayPal site.